Tag Archives: all songs considered

I started listening to NPR’s All Songs Considered quite religiously this last year and was subsequently introduced to a lot of good music. Here’re few of my favorite introductions this year.

“Little Scream is one person — her name is Laurel Sprengelmeyer. She’s originally from Iowa, now based in Montreal. She put out what I think is an absolutely captivating record. It’s got a lot of push and pull: It’s very powerful, very delicate, very dreamy and meditative, but also very poppy and catchy.” – Robin Hilton [source]

“[There was] a lot of electronica this year; I think the songs are getting better. The technology made the sounds really cool, and I think there was a lot more understanding of how to make these records more accessible.” – Bob Boilen [source]

“The layers of the guitar are exactly what make this band hit all those sweet spots for me. There’s a beautiful wash that you get from the guitar, but then you also get lots of great melody. I went to see them at CMJ, and they were the first show that I couldn’t get into.” – Bob Boilen [source]

“This is a record I particularly loved playing in the car. Each [song] takes a Sigur Rós song’s worth of build and compresses into a little bit more digestible three- and four-minute pop songs. This one starts slowly and just gets bigger and bigger and bigger.” – Stephen Thompson [source]

“It’s a look and a study, in song and in sound, of life in a small Scottish town. It doesn’t romanticize it — it paints sort of hard pictures of what life is like there and what people think.” – Bob Boilen [source] This last track is my favorite of the bunch — one of the most beautiful songs I heard all year.

A couple of weeks ago, Fanfarlo released the video for their brand new track, “Replicate” (BIG thanks to All Songs Considered for bringing this to my attention). I really dig this track and can’t wait to hear more. Enjoy the video below, along with a message from the band, and then head on over to fanfarlo.com for more (hint: if you sign up for the mailing list, you can download “Replicate” for free).

Dear all,

Almost exactly a year ago we stopped touring and sat down to write a new record. Earlier this year we went to a remote slate quarrying town in Northern Wales to record it and now we finally have the finished result in our hands.

There is so much we want to show you! It was hard to decide where to start, but we decided to start at the beginning. So here is the first song from our new album — it’s called ‘Replicate’. Over the summer there were so many visual ideas we wanted to incorporate in presenting this music to you, both on your screens and live, coming to play in your city. The first puzzle piece is the video above we made in collaboration with Alex Southam.

But that’s not all. We also have a small number of shows scheduled which we are terribly excited about. Simply cannot wait to play you all the new music. And of course, coming to the shows is the only way of hearing it.